Genoa Crisps with Cracked Pepper

One of my FAVORITE things in the world is my Gourmet Club. We started this group 4 years ago, and if you like to entertain and have like minded friends, I strongly encourage you to start-up one of your own. This group of dear friends is comprised of 6 couples who gather every other month allowing for each couple to host once per year. The host home picks the theme and the menu and sends the recipes out to the members to prepare.

Recently I prepared a wine and food pairings tasting party for a family celebration and decided to adopt it as my theme when it was my turn to host. This is one of many dishes we paired with a variety of wines. For this event the guests bring both their dish and a suggested wine pairing. We paired these with a Chardonnay. More to come on the rest of the menu. Enjoy!


Genoa Crisps with Cracked Pepper

12 Thinly sliced pieces of Genoa salami (4 Ounces)
1/4 Whipped cream cheese
Fresh cracked black pepper
Parchment paper


Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place salami in a single layer on the parchment paper and bake for 7-9 minutes, until almost crisp. They will crisp more when they are cooling. These can be smoking when they come out of the oven, so I cool them outside.  To assemble the crisps place a 1/4 teaspoon of cream cheese in the middle of each salami crisp and sprinkle with just few grains cracked black pepper

Cooks Note: You can make the chips ahead of time and store them at room temperature